Information for Victims in Large Cases

Pilgrim’s Pride engaged in a conspiracy to fix prices and rig bids for broiler chicken products. The charged conspiracy began at least as early as 2012 and continued at least until early 2019.

Dr. William Harwin was charged with participating in a conspiracy to suppress and eliminate competition by agreeing to allocate the provision of medical and radiation oncology services.  While he was President and Managing Physician Partner of Florida Cancer Specialists (FCS), Harwin and his co-conspirators agreed not to compete to provide chemotherapy and radiation treatments to cancer patients in Southwest Florida.  Beginning as early as 1999 and continuing until at least 2016, Harwin entered into an illegal agreement that allocated chemotherapy treatments to FCS and radiation treatments to a competing oncology group.

One company and four individuals, Evans Concrete LLC, James Clayton Pedrick, Gregory Hall Melton, John “David” Melton, and Timothy “Bo” Strickland, were charged with participating in a conspiracy to fix prices, rig bids, and allocate markets. The conduct applied to the sale of ready-mix concrete used in residential, commercial and public projects in the greater Savannah, Georgia area. The conduct began at least as early as 2010 and continued until in or about July 2016. James Clayton Pedrick is also charged with making false statements and Timothy “Bo” Strickland is charged with making false statements and perjury.

Taro Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc. was charged with participating in two conspiracies to suppress and eliminate competition by agreeing to fix prices, allocate customers, and rig bids for generic drugs. The charged conspiracies took place between 2013 and 2015.

Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. was charged with participating in three conspiracies to suppress and eliminate competition by agreeing to fix prices, allocate customers, and rig bids for generic drugs. In the first count, Glenmark was charged along with Teva with knowingly entering into and engaging in a conspiracy to suppress and eliminate competition by agreeing to increase and maintain prices of pravastatin and other generic drugs sold in the United States. The charged conspiracies took place between 2013 and 2015.

This case charges a ring of fraudsters who used skimming devices to steal unwitting victims’ account information from gas pumps, ATMs, and similar common points of sale.  The defendants then allegedly used that information to make fraudulent debit and credit cards, which they used to withdraw cash from victims’ accounts and make fraudulent purchases (like hundreds of thousands of dollars of postal money orders).  According to the indictment, these crimes were committed in and around San Diego, Los Angeles, New York, St. Louis, and Oklahoma. 

The defendant has been charged with hoarding and price gouging in violation of the Defense Production Act of 1950.

The indictment charges TURCHIN with conspiracy to commit computer hacking, two counts of computer fraud and abuse (hacking), conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and access device fraud.  TURCHIN and his accomplices perpetrated an ambitious hacking enterprise broadly targeting hundreds of victims across six continents.  TURCHIN employed a collection of hacking techniques and malicious software (malware) to gain and maintain access to victim networks.  For instance, he often used specially designed code to scan the Internet for open Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) ports and conduct brute-force attacks to initially compromise victim networks.  Once inside the victim’s system, he moved laterally throughout the network and deployed additional malicious code to locate and steal administrative credentials and establish persistent access.  The conspirators often modified antivirus software settings to allow malware to continue to run undetected.  TURCHIN and his co-conspirators then marketed and sold the network access on various underground forums commonly frequented by hackers and cybercriminals, such as Exploit.in, fuckav.ru, Club2Card, Altenen, Blackhacker, Omerta, Sniff3r, and L33t, among others.  As has been publicly reported, the “fxmsp” group has been linked to numerous high-profile data breaches, ransomware attacks, and other cyber intrusions.

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Inc., USA is charged with knowingly entering into and engaging in a conspiracy to suppress and eliminate competition by agreeing to increase and maintain prices of pravastatin and other generic drugs sold in the United States. The charged conspiracy began at least as early as May 2013 and continued at least until December 2015.

The indictment charges Mario Castro, 51, Jose Salud Castro, 70, Salvador Castro, 53, Miguel Castro, 55, Jose Luis Mendez, 45, and Andrea Burrow, 49, with mail fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud.  According to the indictment, the defendants ran a fraudulent prize-notification scheme that tricked hundreds of thousands of consumers, many of whom were elderly and vulnerable, into paying a $20 or $30 fee to claim a large cash prize.  None of the victims who submitted fees ever received a large cash prize, the indictment alleges.

The defendants operated a bogus computer technical support company.  Victims would obtain the toll-free number for the phony service through either (1) a pop-up advertisement that would appear on the victim’s computer, or (2) through an Internet search for technical support services.  Victims’ calls would be routed to a call center in India, where an individual posing as a technical support technician would obtain remote access to their computers and falsely inform the victims that their computers had been targeted by hackers and/or had been infected with malware.  The phony technician would then pretend to perform repairs and/or install unneeded computer programs.  The victim would be billed between $300 and $1,500 for the bogus work performed, and would be instructed to send payment, either by U.S. Postal Service or FedEx, to an address inside the United States.  Upon receipt of the payments, defendants inside the United States would send the money to defendants in India.

Lance Mann has been charged with identity theft for his role in unlawfully obtaining victims’ confidential financial and personal information, including drivers licenses, Social Security cards, and credit card information. Included in the unlawfully obtained information was a list of names, home addresses, and credit card numbers belonging to victims who purchased tickets for tour buses visiting the Grand Canyon. Investigators believe that many of those transactions occurred in Las Vegas, Nevada.